Crazy Colors

Isha is a young and bright painter, struggling to make her mark in Mumbai. She studies painting at JJ School of Arts.

Her mother succumbed to asthma when Isha was quite young. Her father, an accountant, wants her to be an engineer and shows no respect for her talent. He looks down at her calling as a waste of time and effort. However, she decides to follow her passion despite opposition at home.

Aditya is a fellow student who is jealous of her natural ability and leaves no opportunity to deride her work. In fact, he is a drunkard who has already been rusticated once from the college. Egoist to the core, he finds it difficult to accept Isha as a competitor and a better artist. Even though it results in unpleasant situations for her, Isha does her best to avoid him and focus her energies on her art.

However, she finds it quite difficult to succeed in a highly competitive market and feels frustrated at times. One of her fashion designer friends asks her to join her company as a sketch artist and offers her a good package. But Isha decides to stay true to her passion.

One day, as she visits an exhibition gallery, she observes a man staring at her still-life images which she has managed to display there. He appreciates her paintings and buys a few of them. The owner introduces him to Isha – he is Rahul, a rich and successful businessman.

They both develop an instant liking for each other. Cupid strikes hard. What follows is a whirlwind romance at the end of which they fall in love. Isha truly savors these unforgettable moments as her otherwise lonesome life assumes a vibrant flavor.

But her happiness is short lived.

One rainy evening, while returning home, she meets with a terrible car accident. The drunk driver, obscured by a heavy shower, stops, peeps out of the car window, stares at her motionless body and speeds away.

Isha suffers a severe head injury. Fortunately, she survives. Her recovery takes a long time and Rahul stands by her during her ordeal.

She starts attending college subsequently but knows that something is amiss. She tries hard to focus on painting but feels lost and disoriented.

Meanwhile, Rahul invites her to his home. His parents like Isha and they get along very well. But then, something quite unusual happens.

While they’re having tea, the cup in Isha’s plate starts shaking, creating a shrill noise. She asks Rahul whether an earthquake is on. She points towards the fans which seem to glide in the air. She tries to get up but collides with a ceramic flower vase that smashes to the floor. Next, everyone around her is taken aback as she crashes down and falls unconscious.

Rahul rushes her to the doctor who examines her in detail. Later, he tells them that due to the head injury sustained by her in the accident, Isha has now developed an abnormal medical condition called vertigo.

This comes as a rude shock to Isha who now begins to experience some of the most painful and strangest sensations. A person suffering from vertigo loses his sense of balance. She feels as if everything around her is spinning, as if an earthquake has hit her. She runs into people and things, crashes to the ground and walks on her fours to maintain her balance.

On one such occasion, the attack paralyzes her while she is crossing the road. She stands there in the middle of a jam packed road, holding her head with cars honking and angry commuters shouting. Finally, she passes away.

She now becomes a potential threat to her own life.

Her career comes to a grinding halt as the moment she picks up the brush, the canvas becomes blurred. A terrible headache rips her apart and all the colors seem to mix and flip flop around her. She hears a penetrating noise, ringing constantly in her ears. Tears roll down her cheeks as she cries with pain. Her life becomes a living hell.  

Her attacks last for ten to fifteen minutes and occur frequently during a day. After an attack, she feels totally drained out and collapses helplessly.

Now, Rahul’s parents make it clear to their son that they can’t accept a seriously ill girl like her as their daughter -in-law as she would turn out to be a liability for everyone.

Rahul runs into an argument with his parents and threatens to leave the home. Later, he shares their concern with Isha who does not feel offended at all. She knows that this deadly disease would not allow her to be a good wife or a good mother. She would become a burden on Rahul and ultimately spoil his future. She decides to quietly move out of his life.

One day, unannounced, she slips away to Pune. She lives as a paying guest at an old bungalow. Her land lady is struck by her peculiar condition and develops sympathy for her young tenant. However, for all her good nature, this woman is an alcoholic who prefers to live in a world of her own.

Isha now starts running painting classes for children. But the vertigo attacks continue to play havoc with her. The doctors advise her not to go out alone and she eventually becomes a hermit. She misses Rahul badly but stops taking his calls. Her life turns into one black hole.

One morning, as bright sunshine streams into her room, she decides that come what may, she would paint. She decides not to let her life fritter away like this, whatever be the cost.

With a determined look on her face, she sets down to work. Everything goes on well for a while. Then, vertigo strikes. The whole room spins like a giant wheel, the shape of the canvas distorts but she does not allow herself to crash.

As the attack gets over, breathless and still shaking, she picks up her brush and with trembling hands, starts painting. Tears block her vision, she perspires heavily. The attack has sapped all her energy but she does not stop. She paints and paints and finally collapses.

Next morning, as she gets up from a deep slumber, she is surprised to find a very striking image on the canvas. It’s an abstract painting which sharply conveys a sense of pain.

On an impulse, she gets it framed and displays it at a local gallery. The painting gets sold in the very first week and the owner asks her to send more paintings in the similar style.

Her work ignites public interest. Soon, people and artists alike start noticing the absolutely fresh and mysterious quality of her art.

Isha now turns her darkest hours into the most creative ones. Having known once that she can paint even with vertigo eating into her guts, she resolves to carry on.

The owner of the gallery, impressed by her work, asks her to give an introductory talk on her new style of painting.

He helps her conduct a workshop. She explains to the students that what is important while painting is to forget everything else and concentrate on the central theme, thus moving into a kind of trance. The focus should be on harnessing the complete energy of a particular emotion, including pain. She tells them that in this manner, a painter just disappears and becomes a medium for this energy to paint through him.    

However, during one such workshop, Aditya comes forward and challenges her school of thought. He thunders that she is able to paint in a particular fashion not because of her skills but due to an external factor-Vertigo. He dares her to paint in   the same fashion when she is not under a vertigo attack.

Isha accepts the challenge. She stresses that what is important is to absorb the pure ecstasy associated with a sentiment completely, vertigo or no vertigo.

She demonstrates her art there and then in front of a large crowd, choosing Love as her theme. Everybody is astonished to see the result which is a remarkable image of a young mother feeding her child. Isha receives a standing ovation for her feat. Stunned, Aditya beats a hasty retreat, more revengeful than ever.

Now, a new form of painting is born called ‘Ecstasy’ which mesmerizes artists the world over. To paint not just with a subject in mind but with an overwhelming energy and emotion associated with the subject- this very original concept, executed to perfection, forms the hallmark of Isha’s body of work.

She now becomes a celebrity. Her land lady is impressed by her determination and helps her in establishing ‘Crazy Colors’ - a Painting Academy where Isha shares her new creative experience. The academy draws visual artists from all over the world in droves who want to learn this amazing technique.

Meanwhile, a filmmaker approaches Isha’s father for an interview as he is producing a documentary on her stupendous achievement. The old man has opposed and discredited her passion all his life but this is one moment when he truly feels proud of his daughter.

At this juncture, people start noticing the meditative quality of Isha’s creations. A middle aged woman at her academy who suffers from anxiety, brings out that she feels quite peaceful when she sits next to her paintings. Some other students and fans also share the calming effect of her work.

But Isha does not believe this. To her, this sounds a bit outlandish. But the truth is that her pictures born out of pure ecstasy, carry something captivating, something eternal, something of the other world in them.

Subsequently, a big exhibition is scheduled to be held at her academy to expose her unique talent to a large cross section of people. Rahul also comes to know about it and decides to be there.

But a day prior, Aditya manages to enter the exhibition premises unnoticed. Drunk and revengeful, he sets the main hall on fire at night. With everything around him in flames, he roars that he won’t allow an ailing girl like Isha to climb the ladders of success.

When Isha rushes to the site in the morning, she finds all her work reduced to ashes. This crushes her completely.

She notices a small statue of Lord Ganesha lying undamaged among the wrecks. She vents her frustration at the elephant God and says that if He does not want her to move ahead in life, then there is no point in living uselessly. In a fit of madness, she drives up to the edge of a cliff and is about to jump off when Rahul reaches there in the nick of time and saves her.

She now decides to take a break and heal herself. 

Meanwhile, Aditya is arrested and sent to a mental asylum as he is found in an unstable state.

However, as the therapeutic effect of her masterpieces becomes known to more and more people, a medical trust treating the mentally challenged, approaches her to paint for them.

She agrees to do it for a noble cause. Subsequently, the influence of her work on the patients is found to be so effective that during a visit to the trust, they come and kiss her hands to thank her. There, she also comes across Aditya who has himself experienced the magic of her genius. A changed man, he acknowledges that she indeed is a great artist.

Now, the time arrives for the source to heal itself. One fine morning, Isha discovers that vertigo has finally left her. She experiences a tremendous outburst of energy inside her. She feels as if she is flying in the open sky, among the clouds, touching the zenith.

This is also the time when her land lady confesses that the terrible car accident which destroyed Isha’s life was perpetrated by her under the influence of liquor, during a visit to Mumbai. She had recognized Isha the day she approached her for a rented room. But she did not have the courage to tell her the truth since she had fled shamelessly from the accident site. She now pleads with Isha to pardon her and hand her over to the police.

Though shocked by this revelation, Isha forgives her. In fact, she thanks the land lady for assisting her in establishing the academy and supporting her throughout.

She now receives a call from Germany where the medical experts want her help in analyzing the salutary effect of colors on human mind and may be, develop an alternative therapy for illnesses like vertigo.

She decides to take up this assignment. Rahul now becomes fully aware of her exceptional ability - it’s not just painting, it’s a touch of the unknown. He realizes that it will be selfish on his part to bind her in any bondage as now the whole world needs her.

They part happily.

Next day, she catches a flight and moves to a new world, a world full of the magic of colors.